Matthew Gale

This is the catalogue of the soon-to-end (Jan. 4th 2009) exhibition of Bacon's works at Tate Britain. It is a stunning collection of works by a truly original artist who could stand as the greatest to come out of the British Isles in the mid-20th Century (he was, of course, Irish-born).

Viewing the paintings is an uncomfortable experience: faces scream out of darkness, bodies are twisted, laid open, bleed. He uses lines to confine and circumscribe his figures as if in cages. He is not an artist from whom to seek solace about the human condition, but humanity is there. He wrote "I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trace of the human presence and memory trace of past events, as the snail leaves its slime". I think he succeeds.

When I visited the exhibition I noticed two mothers with daughters of 7-8 years, both sitting in front of these harsh works and discussing them. I wondered what you could usefully say to a young child about the images.… (meer)